I WONDER if my 2 year old KUDE60 could be retro fitted with it? I hate our hard well water.

Not sure, but there's an 800 number you can call on their website. good luck!

sfb3ip,
Are you aware that the water softener is only a new dispenser for citric acid type of softening crystals. It doesn't actually remove hard water minerals from the water, it merely makes them more soluble. A true softener would have to be a Rube Goldberg type of device that circulates the water through a bed that removes the minerals and has to be regenerated between cycles or washes with a salt solution. The result would be water free of hard water minerals and substituting sodium which doesn't make water hard. I can use LemiShine in the regular dispensers to do exactly what the new model seems to do without adding another dispenser to break down.

There is supposed to be a model with the filter and one with the soft food disposer.

Nerdyshopper-
No, I didn't realize that - thanks for the information. I thought it would be the kind of softener that comes on the Miele dishwashers. That's really a bummer since I have extremely hard water. What to do now??? If I don't get a dishwasher with a softener and I use the Lemishine, can I avoid etching on my glasses?

I don't have an answer to that. Why don't you just get a small water softener installed to supply the hot water tank in your home? It would be on the cold side of the tank. Your cold drinking water would not be affected, and your showers would not get that slimey feel because of the cold water that you mix with the hot. Also it prevents scale in the hot water tank. Of course if you live in an apartment you couldn't do that.

That's a good thought - others had mentioned it in other posts. What's the slimey feel? - the one that feels like it's hard to rinse soap off of your hands or shampoo out of your hair? Will the water in my shower be at all more soft than it is now if I install the softener? What kind of maintenance does it need and how much does it cost? Your advice is greatly appreciated!

Those are a lot of questions. First: when water is very soft, soap tends to bind to our skin and there must be fatty molecules there so you get a slimey feeling with very soft water. A little hardness does away with that. In my showers I use enough 140-150 degree water to make a comfortable shower mixed with cold (about 50 degrees or so. Thus if the average is about 115 degrees, 1x150+Xx50=115x(1+X). X=0.7. So The hot is 1/1.7 of the total or 59% of the total. A little more than half. So you will have cut your hardness in about half. A water softener needs a salt to regenerate the resin used to exchange hard water ions for sodium or potassium. Sodium is cheaper: about $6-$7 a 50 pound sack. The softener comes with an automatic timer that occasionally does the regenerating with salt water that you make by putting the salt into a tub that is part of the system. It adds water as needed and does the flushing needed. It has a timer as part of the apparatus. They come in all kinds of automation and detection with the price going up with every step up. If you only want the simplest and can do a lot of checking on it I guess you could get by for 2 or 3 hundred dollars. If you want ultra fancy stuff it can cost over $1000. The price depends to some degree on the size of the unit. Do a google search and you will drop many water softener vendors online. They are not all honest or helpful but some seem to be. My old Culligan sprang a leak and we never replaced it. I did do a lot of online searching several years ago and picked a winner for us but my wife didn't like the slimey feel when all the water was softened so we didn't pursue it.

nerdyshopper-
thanks very much for the info - i'll look into that option.

Where was the information found regarding how the machine's water softener will function?

Follow-up:

I have confirmation from a reliable source that the KA unit does have a full-function water softener, with resin bed regenerated by salt like a household softener.

I found an example online of the info upon which the reference above to crystal was based ... a simplified explanation of the water softener's functioning, and note the last sentence --
Hard Water Softener
The integrated hard water softener automatically dispenses the correct amount of softener crystals after an initial calibration. The crystals remove hard minerals from the water, leaving dishes and glasses clean and virtually spot-free. Uses water softener salt specifically formulated for the dishwasher.

I have always been curious about the posts on this topic over the years. Countless people going totally ballistic/anal over a SINGLE machine that is purported to soften its own water...............and utterly ignoring the obvious effect of their too-hard water supply on EVERYTHING ELSE in their household except for the appliance in-discussion.

Amazing.

Pitiful.

I think the advice to get a whole house water softenter is "Spot on". Our 9 year old KA DW was "totalled" by our ultra hard water here in S. Calif. It looked like snow coating all the staintless inside the DW, I did clean it often with limeaway, but it still built up faster than I could clean it. The lime gets in the DW pump, in the intake valve and even coats the heating element. In fact one of my tenants called and said their DW was smoking--it was only 3 years old---maybe less. The problem was traced, by my tenant to the heating element. He cleaned all the lime off it and it's now fine---I added softwater there too!

We have the softwater, just on the hot side, We use Raine Water Softner company--(A competitor to Culligan).
It cost me about $35 for the installation (right next to the water heater) and it runs me about $25/month. They change the tank once/month---at 69, I don't wanna be lugging salt around, then lifting it up and pouring it in the softner---so it's well worth the $25/month to us--
(those that have been on Terra Firma as long as we have will certainly understand!!!

Everything on the not water side stays spotless, Bath tub, hot side of sinks, etc etc---the cold side is still a mess!!!

HTH's

Gary

Gary-
Do you know how hard your water is? Ours in LA is 16, which seems ridiculously high and I wanted to compare to you before I go back to the city and confirm. I'm really considering the going to a soft water system like yours. How hard is it to rinse soap from your hands or conditioner from your hair? Thanks.

If you use the same amount you're accustomed to using it will take a looooong time. Advise starting out with 1/6th what you're using and work up from there. If you're unaccustomed -- which I take it you are -- it will seem strange/impossible/annoying at first. It really isn't. Just have to make a mental adjustment about how much is actually needed with soft water. Same for clothes washer and DW.

I will call the water company tomorrow, and see what they say---I have never measured it myself, but I suspects it's
closest to the hardest water in Calif.

In fact at a car show, I met up with one of the Yorba Linda "Dignitaries"--who claims to be "In the Know" and He says they gonna add a "Reverse Osmosis System" to much of the water in Orange County Calif.

We don't find rinsing soap off hands or outta hair a problem. But it we want the water "slightly Harder" all we have to do is turn on the cold side a bit, as the soft water is only on the hot side---the down side of that is
scum builts up around the cold side of the water faucets
(I still haven't trained the wife to use Hot Water Only)!

Gary

"I met up with one of the Yorba Linda "Dignitaries"--who claims to be "In the Know" and He says they gonna add a "Reverse Osmosis System" to much of the water in Orange County Calif."

This man is an idiot. The magnitude and cost of such a project is beyond belief. The closest on earth to what he may be proposing would be the big de-salinization plants that the emirates utilize to provide fresh water for their projects. You can look it up.

Well, another question for the water company, tomorrow.

Gary

thanks very much for checking - i really appreciate it.

Still waiting for either of the 2 "Water Quality Experts" to return my call, apparently both of them were out today.
Meanwhile I goggled a chart that was provided by the water company. The chart shows a hardness of 21.

I think that "Expert" I mentioned in a previous post has confused YL Water with Orange County Water District, where they indeed have a Huge Reverse Osmosis System for the ground water---that was apparently to take care of Sea Water that may have seeped into the ground water.

Gary

OK expert called, water has got "marginally better".
Use to be 21 grams/gallon, now it is 19.

And Yes Asolo, Yorba Linda Water Company has no plans to put in a reverse osmosis system, like you said, very expensive and the one that Orange County Water District has, uses 4, 1000 HP motors to push the water thru the membranes---I'd hate to pay the bill to run those succers!!

Gary